Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,808 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“Mun-Delsalle, Y.-Jean. "Esther Mahlangu, One Of South Africa's Most Famous Artists, Perpetuates Traditional Ndebele Painting". Forbes. Retrieved 24 March 2025.”
Esther Mahlangu (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have just carried on doing what I did as a child. It’s been one long continuous stream of making pictures to feel a sense of connectedness. Painting this way is a wordless exclamation….Sometimes people get cross with it because they hate that it’s not about anything, and that I just carry on with all this realism. This fiddle-faddle, this knitting.”
Deborah Poynton (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who cares if you can paint something that looks real? It is totally banal. There is no worth in that, except as a kind of sport, an exercise in hand-eye co-ordination. Now painting something that seems to contain reality – that is truly moving.”
Deborah Poynton (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You’re not just painting or making work about the empirical changes that you witness, but actually the psychological changes.”
Penny Siopis (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I was on Generations, I made my own costume. As a creative you are never done. One day you are in front of the camera and the next day you are painting and the following day you are producing something or opening a shop. You can't be put into a box because your mind is always creating”
Sthandiwe Kgoroge (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The succeeding phase of Mundigak I, says Fairservis, adds to the KGM ware " the jars and cups and design repertoire, including black and red polychrome painting familiar in Quetta [central Baluchistan] as the Kechi Beg wares, and which in turn have their equivalents in the early Hissar Culture of north-eastern Iran.”
Walter Fairservis (1921–1994) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quoted in The Problem of Aryan Origins by K.D. Sethna, Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, 1992.
“Never take lobster-sauce to salmon; it is mere painting of the lily, or, I should rather say, of the rose.”
William Maginn (1793–1842) said by 1842 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(About q:it:Dario Mellone) He wanted to devote himself, body and soul, to his great passion: painting. It was a solitary and total love. When I went to visit him, he would often entertain me with stories about his latest works. He would explain them to me in great detail, momentarily stepping out of his shy and reserved character.”
Ferruccio De Bortoli (born 1953) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Gian Antonio Stella, Il mondo spiegato a china Sport, delitti, Milano: cioè la vita. Le tavole di Dario Mellone non avevano confini, Corriere della Sera (December 15, 2020)
“Filippini’s painting, suspended between natural observation and ethical structure, anticipates the spiritual weight of twentieth-century realism.”
Valerio Terraroli (born 1956) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Valerio Terraroli (ed.), in Francesco Filippini. Catalogo generale delle opere, Skira, 1999.
“archetype Tristan can totally rock, those arms in the air peak moments at a blinding gig! He blasts into the painting in a flaming comet, a Ganesha shaped chariot, & is also held within in the feminine head of Sophia, creatrix of the universe. When we align with this power we have the power to create our lives. Ever feel like that on a dance floor?”
Emma Watkinson (born 1986) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What you make as a designer is an expression of yourself. I love music and painting and I prefer life in the country.”
Laura Ashley (1925–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One example is Recursion that scaled-up cell-painting technologies, allowing to image hundreds of millions of cells and see what happens to the cells. *When you perturb them either chemically or genetically.”
Michael Bronstein (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without the definiteness of sculpture and painting, music is, for that very reason, far more suggestive. Like Milton's Eve, an outline, an impulse, is furnished, and the imagination does the rest.”
Henry Theodore Tuckerman (1813–1871) said by 1871 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was very restless, and my mom made me do sports, languages, piano, painting, typing—any class there was in town, she sent me to learn;”
Karina Rabolini (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It thus seems necessary that we come up with more nuanced and more detailed characterizations of the two systems (the two types of processes) in order to avoid painting the picture in too broad strokes.”
“Entrepreneurship is about seeing a problem and wanting to do something about it. It’s about having a vision and painting the world how you’d want it to look, and then dedicating yourself to making that a reality.”
Hema Vallabh wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Method actors give you a photograph. Real actors give you an oil painting.”
Charles Laughton (1899–1962) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed by Jack Gleason in Playboy (1962). Reported in Tony Crawley (ed.) Chambers Film Quotes (1991) p. 178
“My creative process is a fluid and ongoing dance. Ideas come in a visual flash, and I often spend months manifesting that vision into a painting or sculpture. I allow my work to unfold naturally, without strict rules, often incorporating current events or addressing a subject I feel passionate about.”
Nancy Calef (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have a new book entitled "Peoplescapes -- My Story From Purging To Painting" an illustrated memoir (Babu Books).”
Nancy Calef (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This year I have been looking the play Antigone by Sophocles. At the beginning of my project I tried to find as many classical painting representations of the play and then I work from these paintings to create my own work.”
Anna Woodward (1868–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I often paint a painting until it tells me to stop, and sometimes the white ground still shows,In most cases, I try to make the white ground either a pattern, so that it can be both negative and positive space, or if not that, perhaps an atmospheric wind moving the other colors and shapes around.”
Alice Baber (1928–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I feel that an abstract painting is outer space, and I am in front of it, suspended in outer space, so that there isn't any horizon line. However, there is probably a sense of up and down, and side to side.” Beyond that, “I want the viewer to create part of the meaning.”
Alice Baber (1928–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In 1995 I moved on to painting a boat, and then a home built sailing raft my partner at the time and I built out of scrap lumber, logs and foam. We fashioned it into a painted dragon. We lived and sailed on it in the North-East for two years. It was hard living on the ocean so in 1999, I moved back to Bisbee.”
Gretchen Baer (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On the same canvas. Yes. Well, that's essentially what I'm doing. And I have been tempted to say that I make history paintings—but I know quite well that nobody anymore knows what I mean. If you say “classic,” that doesn't mean anything, but “history painting” is what I'm doing and I know I'm doing that, but I wouldn't choose it as a way of explaining it to an audience today cause they don't know.”
Jo Baer (1929–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting reduces me to tears and misery: peaks of ecstasy, depths of disillusion...”
Frances Hodgkins (1869–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As stated in NZ On Screen's "Kaleidoscope - Frances Hodgkins," 1989. NZ On Screen. Published 1989.
“I have never lost my faith in my painting, my work, as a child or an adult, in sickness or health, success or failure, peace or war ...”
Rita Angus (1908–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As stated in Te Papa's "Audio descriptions for Rita Angus New Zealand Modernist," Te Papa 2021-2022. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Published: 2021-2022.
“In my painting, I always leave the blank space because I feel it needs to be filled by a higher power.”
Portia Zvavahera (born 1985) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: taken from an article by The Cambridge Student, 12 November 2025
“When you're painting you feel quite attune with everything... it's a great pleasure, quite addictive.”
Alexis Hunter (1948–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just minutes later, I glanced to my right and saw a painting of a blue butterfly. In that moment, I knew,”
Chelsea Fernandez first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fernandez on returning to pageantry: 'One of the best decisions I ever made', ABS-CBN News, 22 January, 2026.
“But, between Fleming and Rossellini, I had discovered France [...] during a school trip in 1953 [...]. And that young woman, gilded in gold, high on the great horse of the monument in Place des Pyramides, fascinated me; just as I was moved by the images taken almost entirely from Ingres's swift painting and replicated in a thousand ways [...] in all the churches of France. (p. 4)”
Franco Cardini (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is with mathematics not otherwise than it is with music, painting or poetry. Anyone can become a lawyer, doctor or chemist, and as such may succeed well, provided he is clever and industrious, but not every one can become a painter, or a musician, or a mathematician: general cleverness and industry alone count here for nothing.”
Paul Julius Möbius (1853–1907) first seen 1107 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ueber die Anlage zur Mathematik (1900) р. 5. Memorabilia Mathematica (1914), p. 184, no. 1107
“I think of makeup as just fun paint. I'm just painting my face.”
Michelle Harper (born 1978) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Into the Gloss, "Michelle Violy Harper, Brand Consultant", January 2012.
“A prime example of linear painting where lines and contours appear like cutouts.” Page text.”
Carlos "Botong" Francisco (1912–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My mother was a woman of great faith. When my second brother, Mariano, died at the age of 33, and I broke the news to her, she turned to a painting of Our Lady of Pompeii and said through her tears: 'I don't understand You, but I entrust him to You.' That testimony has stayed with us through many other tragic moments.”
Paolo Cirino Pomicino (1939–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Realizing the difficulty of painting in word colors a land so strange, so wonderful, and so vast in its features, in the weakness of my descriptive powers I have sought refuge in graphic illustration.”
John Wesley Powell (1834–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(About Mariangela Melato) A multifaceted talent. In every field she has ventured into, her extraordinary creativity has shone through, including in painting.”
Renzo Arbore (born 1937) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Maybe one day, when the planet's a charred and fallow husk, a lone soul will come across a painting by Covert in a dilapidated museum with the words BETTE DAVIS emblazoned across it. This person, not knowing who she was, will say her name aloud, perhaps with some confusion, bringing the actress back to life for just a few seconds. It's an oddly comforting thought.”
Alex Jovanovich (born 1975) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the art of Scott Covert; "To Die For", Artforum, April 2023.
“Being a gifted draughtsman I gave a lot of attention to anatomy drawing and this has become my forte FIGURE DRAWING AND PAINTING”
Olusegun Adejumo (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting is very therapeutic for me because I don’t hold back anything its pure uncensored creative energy.”
Abba Makama first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Abba T. Makama, The Guardian Nigeria, 2016.
“I paint what I feel. It irritates me when people ask me what I’m trying to express through my painting. I give you the freedom to find in it whatever you wish. I paint — it’s up to you now to feel.”
Baya Mahieddine (1931–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My style changed when I started painting black women with my own dark skin color.”
Oluwole Omofemi wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I started painting it didn’t feel a lot like activism, it was natural for me to be inspired by and depict people that surround me in my community, people who are black”
Sungi Mlengeya (born 1991) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The idea of painting myself is still scary. I think it could be quite an emotional, deeply reflective experience to have to critically observe and recreate a likeness of myself over several days”
Sungi Mlengeya (born 1991) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pioneer: Sungi Mlengeya 2 June 2023
“The figures in my painting are fictional… freedom is a mothering figure to them”
“This imagery, this manipulation of space, this technique, I have attempted to use to evoke a painting which, for want of better words, is symbolic of a certain mood or state of mind. A mood of waiting, of inactivity, of expectancy, sometimes hopeful and sometimes fearful. This is why most are called Vigil.”
Bill Ainslie (1934–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My work transformed because I spoke of the human condition. I am painting what is very real to me”
Beatrice Wanjiku (born 1978) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Kenyan artist Beatrice Wanjiku 3 November 2016
“Painting needs a lot of discipline to be able to do i”
Cinga Samson (born 1986) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There seems to be some energy about the figures and about the paintings. It’s just in the presence. It is there. You know, it’s around the whole painting. Maybe it’s the dark, maybe it’s the quietness, maybe the silence. Maybe it’s just a strange mood that the works convey”
Cinga Samson (born 1986) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting continues, you know? It’s not something that I could separate or isolate myself from”
Cinga Samson (born 1986) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is what I am interested in painting: black skin”
Meleko Mokgosi (born 1981) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Artists at Work: Meleko Mokgosi 11 August 2016